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Monthly Archives: January 2012

I’m working on some new ideas for the blog. Want to make it much, much simpler. Might even change the web address. Taking a break from it for awhile to focus on some other things but I’ll return with everything much different. 🙂

Mostly doing nothing, usually. After the weekend where I don’t get to see Max too much we normally just take the day to totally veg out together. Today I’m thinking of getting a lot done…a LOT. There’s a lot of cleaning and organizing I’d like to do around here! Our problem is space. We don’t have a lot of it. But we could probably make better use of the space we do have. The problem is clutter. None of it is Dan’s really. It’s mostly my junk that I have collected, and lots and lots of excess toys for Max. My plan is to purge a lot of that before his birthday but since I’m not really sure what to get rid of and what to keep I’m just going to pay more attention to what doesn’t get played with over the next couple of months.

Today is also an update on my food post from Friday. I did pretty well even though I was surrounded by delicious desserts for most of the weekend at work. I’ve done mostly raw all weekend. The things that weren’t raw were: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 sliver of raw goats milk cheese, 1 sliver of raw cows milk cheese, 1 vegan whoopie pie, and 1 beer. Not all together. Probably obvious buuuuuuut I figured I would explain. Everything else has been greens, veggies, fruit, grains and nuts. I feel mostly pretty good so far. I’m about to start today with a green smoothie and steel cut oats with blueberries and maple syrup. I’m going to let Max get reaaaaaaaally messy in his booster seat with the oats while I do up the dishes and then it’s an early bath time for that guy. I’ve found so far with this diet that as long as I add in extra meals I don’t feel hungry or deprived and actually have pretty good energy levels for the most part. So, I’ll have and extra meal between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner with lots of little snacks mixed in. Max will eat the same thing I am so we’ll both be healthy and feeling good. Signing off now- we’re hungry!

Thoughts about diet and food have been consuming my brain lately. Dan and I have had countless conversations about it. I have talked about it with my older sister quite a bit and with some other friends as well. There are always some people who are very set in their ways, and I have learned not to really bring up the topic of food at all with them. This makes me fee a little bit sad because I like to talk. And I like to talk about food. I like to think ahead (sometimes too far- and yes, living for now and in the moment is a treasure, but I can’t help but plan and scheme, it’s part of who I am!). I really like to make lists. I love different aspects of vegan, vegetarian and raw food diets. I was a vegetarian for 4 years as a teenager and mostly just ate lots and lots of junk food- lots of soda, carbs and soy-based meat replacement products. I try to stay away from all of that now. I do have soda here and there but it’s not something I ever keep in the house. I try not to keep juice either. The only beverages I consume normally while at home are water, and sometimes unsweetened almond milk. I’m not really interested in fully committing to vegan or raw 100%. I love eggs and I really love goat cheese occasionally. After talking with Dan it seems like the best thing for us is a combination of those diets. So my revamped meal plan is coming atcha!

We’ll keep Greek yogurt and nuts for protein snacks and lots of fruit. I feel really good about this and I am really glad that Max will be coming along on this with us, too! I have plans to save for a really nice blender down the line for for now our cheapo one will do- not trying to sound like a snob here at all- our blender is really low quality and burns out easily and quickly and generally can’t handle a lot of stuff. Nothing ever gets 100% blended in there but I’ll try to have patience while it’s what we have to use! I’d like to start green smoothies every morning, too. Let’s see how this goes! I’ll try to update about it once and awhile.

This is not a post about resolutions, don’t be fooled! This has more to do with the seemingly obligatory idea that everyone decides to get fit! get healthy! lose 10 pounds! etc. on January 1st. Some people might really work at it and change their lifestyles for the better permanently but let’s face it- most don’t and their gym memberships and leafy green intake get kind of forgotten about. We seem to do mostly okay in the food department but we still get into ruts sometimes. One of the problems I have as far as food is snacking. Max and I spend a lot of time at home and if there is any kind of junk food in the house it doesn’t last long. A bag of chocolate chips, plate of cookies or cake can become breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let it- not good at all! While grocery shopping last night I stocked up on super healthy snacks in an attempt to change my palette a bit. I got things that Max and I can both enjoy. Here’s what was in my shopping basket:

seaweed rice crackers

cans of chickpeas and white beans to make bean dip for my crackers and to spread on sandwiches

grape tomatoes

dried mangoes

raisins

yogurt tubes to throw in the freezer (also great for soothing Max’s poor teething gums!)

frozen peas (not so much for me, but Max loves them!)

Other items that have been really yummy for us in the past are mixed olives- I love the lemon and garlic variety, rice cakes with almond butter, apple slices and dark chocolate chips.

We often get into dinner ruts, too. We’re cutting out most animal products and focusing our dinner time on vegetables, beans and fruit. This week we’re going to have miso soup quite a bit. We make ours with barley miso paste, cabbage, carrots, green onions, soba noodles, ginger and a bit of rice wine vinegar. I think it’ll be really yummy with lots of garlic, too. Veggie burgers were on sale so I bought a couple of boxes, but next week I’m going to be making a couple batches of homemade bean and veggie burgers to keep in our freezer. Another favorite meal for all of us is chickpea curry with brown rice. Lunch isn’t a big affair- Max and I usually just have something light, Lately he has been loving avocado chunks and I like to roast sweet potato wedges for lunch. Grain salads are great for lunch and dinner! I can’t wait for summer time and tomatoes with every meal!